The Sheraton In Brooklyn part 1 is topped out. This is another Kaufman project. he has this fascination with putting dual or sometimes 3 hotel towers literally conjoined as if one building with different facades. he has several in the city already. As for Kauffman monstrosities, this one isn't that bad. At least the two sides match this time

a new park in the middle of this new nest of skyscrapers. You have to realize all of these towers are within a block of each other. 111 lawrence is on lawrence. 388 Bridge is has fronts on bridge and lawrence. The avalon Willoughby is on the corner of willoughby and bridge and duffield. across the street from that is the new park that will be built and across the street from that is the focal point of the new developments, City Pointe which is coming up. This is all on the southern border of the existing downtown brooklyn skyline but north of the Williamsburg Savings bank and Atlantic Yards site

Thor Equities had bought out the Albee Sq Mall. They got concessions from the city and promised to make it spectacular and will bring in grand retail names. they did do some improvements and then then demolished it. Its one of the reasons i believe they are wrong for Coney Island. See my coney island thread for that. They've decided to build a 60 story + tower here that will in effect be the tallest tower in BK. They demolished the mall, and then stopped and there has been no movement and now there is a giant hole in downtown Brooklyn. 3 cheers for Thor.

What was supposed to go here: (and i have no idea what the probability of it still being built are)

80 Dekalb is another under the radar tower. at 400+ feet it will stick for sure in the Brooklyn skyine. Especially since its not in the main cluster but a block to the east of Flatbush. Like Forte Conde which is considerably shorter it will be very noticable

Red Apple Project
A huge development that takes up a near superblock length of Myrtle Ave. Currently it seems the site is split into 3 phases. Phase one is the east end lowrise and it has broken street level. phase 2 has been cleared but foundations are not dug yet. Phase 3, the highrise is still being used as a surface parking lot

Oro 1 is on the left and completed. Oro 2 on the right has stalled out. They were digging the foundation when the economy crashed. Perhaps if oro sells enough they will restart 2. Last news on 2 was that it was bought out by a hotel and the design will have changed. No new renders were ever released

235 Gold St
They are building luxury condos around an existing self storage facility. I laughed when i heard the idea. the self storage facility is ugly. Its bordering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway which is above ground and there is a huge offramp where the front entrance of the condos would be. Then they released the render and it didn't look half bad. we will see when the complete the project

The flatbush flatiron Building. I really wanted this to happen. I thought it would be cool. Its at the corner of Flatbush and tillary 1 block away from 325 Gold. its at the head of the Manhattan Bridge Approach ramps. But this was the first building to stall out very early in 2008 possible late 2007. still an empty lot

This building was proposed for CUNY and would have been the tallest in the borough and possibly the first 1000 footer (with spire) for NYC outside of Manhattan. But due to financial issues, the school decided to go another direction.

That is weird! I just took a picture of that same spot the other day, and when I saw it here, I thought, 'Wait a minute, how'd that get up there? I didn't post this!' (lol) .

When I was at this location, I thought it was a good scene representative of old NY, but now it looks like it's going to be contaminated by this thing that looks like it should be built closer to the river, like near Hell's Kitchen, or around Chelsea Pier, where they've got another similar bldg.

Like i said, i rarely take pics when its subzero but i had to buy some pants at the Syms downtown. Since I was there I walked around a little to catch up with some downtown projects that get forgotten cause they aren't world trade center or beekman.

5 Gold st is a luxury highrise, Directly to the east a smaller condo tower was planned 201 pearl

And next to Pearl, diagonally from 5 Gold is the Gold st Hotel

Pearl was built, topped off and almost to completion.

The gold st hotel is yet another stalled project. Ground has been cleared but not broken. This pic is from early january, hence the Christmas Tree graveyard.

William Beaver House
What a slutty name. Its on the corner of William st and Beaver st but that didn't stop the developer is getting saucy with his promotions. I wont go into it, it was explained over months in the William Beaver thread that has since been deleted. but in short, this was developed by Andre Balazs. He is known for young hip oversexed hotels like The Standard hotels in NY, LA, Miami, and Chateau Marmont. He got together with Calvin Tsao and designed this;

Official renders came out with girls playing basketball in their underwear and various other graphics that would sell a hip hotel. But this isn't a hotel, its a residential tower a couple blocks off of Wall st. the whole thing just seemed weird. after a short time, the sexy renders stopped being used. the party atmosphere ideas, like a hottub overlooking the lobby, also seemed to disappear and then the tower itself started taking form.

The tower is completed on the exterior and is almost ready to open
in my humble opinion this is a misfire. Balazs laid an egg.

Older pics

(don't get me started on his Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. Another one doesn't live up to its render)

Back to McSam. He has yet another hotel project rising on Bridge st in lower Manhattan. No render has been released to my knowledge and Im not sure if its another Kaufman project as well. what I do know is that its 35 stories. And being that its a block away from the waterfront, at 35 stories this will be a visible tower from the harbor which is only the most popular vantage point of lower manhattan for movies, tv, print, tourists, etc. so its a reason for concern.

6 months ago i stopped by this site and was surprised that it had broken ground and was on the second floor. But its currently only on the 5-6th floor.

Did they lose financing, the site was very quiet and it was a business day. hmm